canvass
Verbcanvasses, canvassing, canvassed
Noun pluralcanvasses
Often confused with canvas
Formscanvasses, canvassing, canvassed
Pluralcanvasses
- 1To approach the people of a group or area one after another, asking for money, information, opinions, support, or the like.
The fundraising team canvassed every household in the district for contributions.
Reporters canvass residents to gather opinions before publishing a story.
Note
Two objects are possible, and the choice changes the shape of the sentence. To canvass the neighborhood for information puts the people or place first and what is sought after for. To canvass support puts the thing sought in object position, as a rail campaign leafleting homes did in 2023. Horace Walpole wrote of canvassing a father's favor in 1768, so the second pattern is old.
- 2To try to win the backing of voters or a constituency before an election or poll, by approaching them personally or speaking in public.
The campaign canvassed thousands of households across the swing district.
Local party members canvass undecided voters in the weeks before polling day.
Note
The campaign verb takes the voters as its object: a candidate canvasses the county, the district, the ward. Thackeray has a character expect to "canvass the county" at the next parliament and hope for Pendennis's interest there. When no electorate is named, English switches to the intransitive "canvass for". One canvasses for votes or for a candidate, but one canvasses a constituency.
- 3To thoroughly examine or investigate something, whether physically or through discussion; to debate or scrutinize it.
The board canvassed the proposal at length before approving the budget.
Lawyers canvass each piece of evidence carefully during a trial.
Similardiscuss, debate, examine, scrutinize
Note
Behind every sense of the verb lies a piece of cloth. It comes from canvas, the coarse hemp fabric, though how the cloth turned into talk is not entirely clear. Arthur Golding's Ovid (1567) catches the motion in doubtful words that people "scan and canvas to and fro." That back-and-forth survives when a committee canvasses a proposal: it turns the thing over rather than asking anyone for anything.
- 4To question people as part of a survey or ask them for things such as money, information, opinions, or support.
The researchers canvassed extensively across the region.
Several students canvass on weekends to fund their club.
Note
This is the soliciting verb with nothing after it but a preposition. For names the person who benefits: Francis Bacon tells of those who "canvassed for others" at Queen Elizabeth's court. Through names the ground covered, as when a character in Joyce Carol Oates's Middle Age (2001) "canvassed through Rockland County" for bond issues. Neither needs a direct object, because the asking itself is the point.
- 5To campaign for the votes of a constituency or of voters before an upcoming election or poll.
Volunteers canvassed across the borough ahead of the local elections.
Members of both parties canvass actively whenever an election approaches.
Similarcampaign, electioneer
Note
The campaigning verb without an object: it takes for, so one canvasses for votes, for a seat, or for a candidate. In the transitive use, by contrast, the voters or the constituency themselves are canvassed. Anthony Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses (1691) has a man who "had canvas'd for votes," spelled like the cloth the verb comes from. Disraeli's Sybil (1845) has fine ladies who "canvassed for Colonel Rosemary."
- 6To engage in debate or discussion about a matter.
The councilors canvassed for hours over the disputed clause.
Scholars still canvass over the poem's true meaning.
Note
Without an object, the verb usually takes over. Frederick Marryat's Jacob Faithful (1834) has two men sitting over dinner in a study, "canvassing over the affair." The preposition sets it apart from the transitive verb, which goes straight to its object: you canvass a plan, but you canvass over a matter. Both mean talking a thing through, and the difference is grammar.
- 7A drive to collect donations, information, opinions, support, or the like by asking people for them.
The charity's annual canvass brought in record donations this year.
Organizers launched a canvass to gauge support for the new policy.
Similarappeal, drive, survey, poll
Note
Not every canvass is an election. Church livings and court honors were canvassed for too. Edmund Burke in 1790 writes of ecclesiastical canvass, and Prescott (1838) sets honors that were once "the subject of a furious canvass" against rewards for merit. Robert Burton (1624) spells it canvas and pictures ambitious men "about a canvas" running, riding and plotting. It is countable: one canvass, two canvasses.
- 8A campaign to win votes or backing before an upcoming election or poll, or an effort to gauge how much support there is.
The campaign's canvass covered every neighborhood in the city.
A thorough canvass showed the incumbent trailing badly.
Note
A canvass can measure support as well as seek it, and its result is a count of the support promised. Disraeli's Coningsby (1844) weighs "the results of the two canvasses" against the agents' reports, and adds that a candidate's personal canvass had become "a mere form." Anthony Wood calls one proctors' election "the greatest canvas … in the memory of Man." Unlike the official canvass, it comes before the vote.
- 9The official examination of an election's ballots to weed out irregular ones, or more broadly the tallying, auditing, and certifying of the results.
The board's canvass confirmed the official vote totals.
State law requires a canvass before any winner is certified.
Note
US election officials use the word for the work that turns a count into a result. The fixed phrase is "official canvass." John Nichols noted in 2016 that California officials have about a month to tally, audit and certify: 28 days for presidential electors and 30 for other contests. It is the noun of the vote-scrutiny verb, and it is distinct from a campaign canvass, which happens before polling day.
- 10To examine the ballots or votes cast in an election and reject irregular ones; also, to challenge or dispute an election result.
County clerks canvass the returns to verify each vote before certifying the election.
Her lawyers moved to canvass the disputed result in three precincts.
Similaraudit, scrutinize, contest
Note
Here the verb works after the vote, not before it. Gilbert Burnet, writing before 1716, describes a court party that found it had lost a poll and "fell to canvass it," making exceptions to the other side's voters. The use died out elsewhere but survives in the US and the Philippines: Maryland's 2024 "canvassing teams" review ballots and their envelopes. Its noun is the official canvass.
- 11To criticize a person, a piece of writing, or the like, severely.
Note
Criticism works here as a kind of battering, in the same family as the beating and attacking senses. It is easy to mistake for close examination, since both can take a text as their object. Jane Austen's Mansfield Park (1814) shows the overlap: "So voluntarily, so freely, so coolly to canvass it!" The outrage is carried by the speaker's tone, and the hostile meaning is now obsolete.
- 12To toss someone up and down in a canvas sheet, whether in sport or as a punishment.
Thou that giu'ſt VVhores Indulgences to ſinne, / Ile canuas thee in thy broad Cardinalls Hat, / If thou proceed in this thy inſolence.
1591, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”Note
The sense closest to the cloth: a person is thrown up and caught in a stretched canvas sheet, which is why "to blanket" means the same thing. Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 1 turns it into a threat against a cardinal, "Ile canuas thee in thy broad Cardinalls Hat," with the wide hat standing in for the sheet. Long obsolete, it now turns up only in older texts.
- 13A thorough discussion or investigation of a matter, though the precise sense is now uncertain.
Note
The meaning is uncertain, but the context points to talk. Joseph Hall in 1611 describes St. Jerome entertaining Paula, Eustochium and other devout ladies "with learned canuases of the deep pointes of Diuinity." That reads most naturally as discussion, a noun answering the verb of close examination. Treat it as obsolete: it is something to recognize in older prose, not a word to use.
- 14Rejection, as at an election or of a petition or suit.
And now I'll tell thee, I have promis'd him / As much as marriage comes to, and I lose / My honour, if my don receive the canvas.
1626, James Shirley, “The Brothers”Note
An idiom is the way in: to receive the canvas was to be turned down. In James Shirley's The Brothers (1626), a speaker fears for her honor "if my don receive the canvas," meaning a refused suitor. Robert Burton (1624) asks someone rebuffed, "why shouldst thou take thy Canvas so to heart?" Both spell it canvas, both treat it as something one suffers, and the sense is obsolete.
- 15To batter, beat, or thrash a person or thing.
Note
Tossing someone in a sheet is rough treatment, and the word widened from the blanket-tossing to beating of any kind. Holinshed's Chronicles (1577) uses it in an account of what befell Lord Home's house and people. The sense is obsolete. A modern reader who meets canvass in a sixteenth-century fight should read it as thrash, not as anything to do with votes.
- 16To assail or attack a person or thing.
- 17Obsolete spelling of canvas.
Note
Spelling once ran both ways between the cloth and the verb. Benjamin Franklin, writing on navigation in 1785, warns against owners who "spread too much canvass" on their cruisers, meaning sails in general. Golding's verb of 1567, meanwhile, was spelled canuas. Today canvas is the cloth and canvass is the verb, so this double-s cloth is a spelling to recognize, not to copy.
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Origins
The verb comes from "canvas," a type of coarse cloth woven from hemp, and the noun comes from the verb. The link between the older sense "to toss someone in a canvas sheet (and by extension to beat or thrash)" and the sense "to seek voters' support in an election" is not entirely clear. It has been suggested that one noun sense may instead come directly from "canvas," referring to the canvas bag mechanics used to pack up their tools.
This sense is a variant of the noun "canvas."